Column: Extra than simply marching band — it’s a life-style you must see to consider

Every summer season, whereas most individuals are eager about pool events or street journeys, I’m drawn to stadium lights, drumline warm-ups, and the roar of a brass hit that shakes you to your core. That’s the sound of Drum Corps International – or simply DCI to these of us who dwell and breathe it. 

Now, I do know what you is perhaps pondering: “Isn’t that just, like, fancy marching band stuff?” That’s what I believed at first, too. But belief me, when you expertise an actual DCI present, you notice it’s in an entire totally different universe. 

As a sousaphone participant and part chief at Pride of Portola, Portola High School Marching Band, I’ve spent years within the trenches – sweating via rehearsals, perfecting posture, memorizing drills, and attempting to make our bass sound wall-to-wall. But DCI? It’s like a marching band leveled up by a 1000. It’s the place the perfect of the perfect go to push themselves previous each restrict–and make magic out of music, motion, and insanity. 

What even is DCI?

For individuals who’ve by no means heard of it, DCI is mainly the NFL of marching arts. It started back in 1972 and has grown into an enormous summer season tour that brings collectively essentially the most elite pupil musicians and performers from all around the world. Currently, there are 50 lively corps, split into World Class, Open Class, and All Age categories. World and Open Class performers are mostly 21 years old, which makes what they do on the sphere even crazier. 

Each corps has up to 165 members, and to even get into one, you must undergo intense auditions that check your marching skills, musical expertise, and visible efficiency. We’re speaking months of coaching to make the lower. And when you’re in, it’s full-time. Like, eat-sleep-rehearse-perform-repeat full-time. 

The season runs from late June to early August, and it ends with the DCI World Championships in Indianapolis. Every present is eight to 12 minutes, however it’s full of high-speed drill, unique music, insane visuals, and storytelling that makes you’re feeling one thing in your chest. Judges rating corps on every part from basic impact to music efficiency, and the Blue Devils have taken residence 21 titles, more than any other corps in history.

Why does it matter a lot to me?

I joined a band in highschool, not fairly figuring out what I used to be entering into. But someplace between hauling that enormous brass hunk round and working units on the turf in full solar, I fell in love with it. And after I grew to become a bit chief at Portola, every part modified. Leading the sousaphone line taught me persistence, grit, and a way of satisfaction. 

But even on our greatest days, I’d watch DCI movies on YouTube and suppose, “How are they even doing that?” The precision. The stamina. The sheer emotion behind the efficiency. So after I lastly received to attend a dwell present this summer season, Drum Corps at the Rose Bowl, it was a straight-up dream-come-true second.

We rolled into Pasadena simply because the solar began setting behind the stadium. I bear in mind hopping out of the automobile, barely even caring that I hadn’t eaten in hours. My mind was buzzing. People in corps shirts had been already all over the place – speaking, laughing, and speed-walking to the “lot” to catch warm-ups, however tighter and meaner. I swear, listening to a snare line run via their guide from only a few toes away hits in another way. It’s bodily. 

The performances hit me more durable than I anticipated

Once the precise present started, I used to be hooked. Every single corps introduced one thing fully distinctive to the sphere. The Boston Crusaders blew me away with their loud brass part and assured perspective; they knew they had been cool and didn’t care who knew it. The Santa Clara Vanguard was the other – clear, managed, and artsy in one of the simplest ways. Their present was referred to as “The aVANt-Guard”, and I nonetheless can’t get the visuals out of my head. Then the Mandarins confirmed up and… I wasn’t prepared. Their present “If I Must Fall…” was straight-up emotional. It wasn’t nearly being loud or quick – it was poetic. At one level, I appeared round and noticed folks wiping their eyes. No kidding. 

But, the good half? I acknowledged somebody within the discipline. A senior from Portola who graduated a month in the past, Nikola Ahrens, is now marching baritone with Pacific Crest. That second made the entire thing really feel actual, like, “Okay, I could actually do this someday.”

Interview: An actual voice from the sphere

I caught up with Ahrens after the present, whereas he was loading up gear behind the stadium. He appeared exhausted, however lit up when he noticed me. I requested him a couple of fast questions:

Q: What’s the toughest a part of marching DCI?

A: “Honestly? It’s the grind. You wake up at like 6:30 a.m., and you’re rehearsing all day in the heat. It’s brutal. But weirdly, you get used to it. You even start to love it.”

Q: What makes it value it?

A: “ That moment at the end of a show when the crowd’s on their feet and you’re holding the final pose, and you know you just gave everything…It’s unbeatable. Like, you’re dead tired, but you feel alive in a way that’s hard to explain.”

Q: Advice to somebody who’s eager about auditioning?

A: “Don’t talk yourself out of it. Just go for it. I didn’t think I was good enough when I auditioned, but I worked like crazy and made it. Even if you don’t make it on the first try, the process makes you better.”

Talking to Ahrens made the entire thing really feel much more achievable. He was one among us, not some prodigy, only a man who cared so much and refused to surrender. If he might do it, so might I.

This isn’t simply marching — it’s artwork. It’s household.

Look, I get the jokes. People like to say the marching band is lame. But the second you see a DCI present in individual, your jaw hits the ground. These are youngsters and younger adults transferring like dancers, taking part in like professionals, and performing like their lives rely on it. And they do all of this underneath the solar, day after day, touring throughout the nation with their corps household. They eat collectively, sleep on buses or fitness center flooring, rehearse in 90-degree warmth, and nonetheless present up each night time with sufficient power to blow away 1000’s of followers.

According to DCI, members rehearse as much as 12 hours a day and carry out at over 30 competitions per season. That’s extra work than loads of full-time jobs. But they do it for the love of the exercise. For the push. For the artwork. 

And yeah, DCI is a contest. Scores matter. But most followers don’t bear in mind who gained final yr. They bear in mind the reveals. The moments. The feeling when a chord decision makes all the stadium erupt. That’s what sticks. 

Final ideas: You’ve gotta see it to consider It

On the way in which residence from the Rose Bowl, my buddy and I couldn’t shut up. We argued about which corps had the perfect drill, which one had the perfect nearer, and which soloist had the perfect tone. I bear in mind pondering, “This is why I love this activity.” Not only for the music, however for the way it brings folks collectively.

DCI isn’t only a “high-level band.” It’s athleticism, artistry, emotion, and connection all rolled into one. If you’ve by no means seen it, go! Even for those who don’t know something about marching, simply go! Watch the lot, seize some merch, eat a corn canine, and sit again and let your mind explode when the present begins. 

Because when you see a corps hit their last pose with 70,000 folks on their toes screaming? You get it. 

And you’ll always remember it.

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